Director Paul Contos

Paul Contos has been involved in jazz performance and education for over 40 years. His mentoring and teaching have touched hundreds of lives. Students he has tutored includes Donny McCaslin, Hafez Modirzadeh, Remy and Pascal LeBoeuf, David Valdez, Kyle Athayde, Chase Baird, Milton Fletcher, Tanya Darby, Eric Crystal, Pat Carroll, Alex Han, and a host of others. His work for the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Education Program since the 1980s as Saxophone Clinician and Director of both The Next Generation Jazz Orchestra and Monterey County All-Stars is distinguished and thoroughly comprehensive.

Contos is a faculty member at University of California, Santa Cruz and California State University, Monterey Bay. He also conducts, performs, and judges at college and high school jazz festivals, and serves as Artist in Residence for many school jazz programs. Contos singularly developed the curriculum for the Music Recording/Technology Concentration at California State University, Monterey Bay. Contos has received performer grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. He also serves as Artist In Residence for the California Arts Council, and is on the council's touring roster. In 2009, Contos was the featured saxophone soloist at Carnegie Hall as part of New York City’s Distinguished Concerts International, performing a jazz concerto by composer Jeff Beal.

A pre-professional training program for current Bay Area high school age jazz musicians. Comprised of two ensembles - the Orchestra and the Combo - the All-Stars rehearse and perform throughout the school year at the SFJAZZ Center, receive mentorship and clinics with leading jazz professionals, record a professional studio album, and appear at prestigious music festivals and competitions.